From a desktop user perspective, i think we should have enough time for it to replace Gimp 1.2.x in testing and also get GNOME 2.6 and KDE 3.2 in testing.

I mean if we (Debian desktop users) are waiting for almost 2 years for new stable, it doesn't hurt to wait another month or two for these apps to get packaged and stabilize, right? Also Debian installer would have time to do additional porting efforts. I think otherwise would be a mistake.